Saturday

The Willimantic 9-10 B All-Stars made a dramatic comeback Friday night in front of their home crowd, defeating Norwich, 11-10, to win the District 11 championship.

Trailing 9-2 going into the home half of the fifth, Willimantic coach John Lebiszczak told his team not to lose faith.

“We were down to this same team this past week in Norwich,” Lebiszczak said. “Our guys know we can play with them, and if they keep their heads up, stop the ball and hit the ball — they just have to have that confidence and push every time they leave that dugout.”

The Willimantic 9-10 B All-Stars completed their dramatic comeback Friday night in front of their home crowd, defeating Norwich, 11-10, to win the District 11 championship.

Norwich, which jumped out to a big lead, scored in all but one inning, using the strong pitching of starter Griffin Pontbriant to keep the Willimantic bats asleep for the first half of the game.

“They have a really good starter,” Lebiszczak said. “He pitched 78 or 79 pitches and was just phenomenal. Our goal was to get him out of the game by taking pitches and making sure we see a strike.”

Using mainly passed balls and errors, Norwich jumped out to an early 4-1 lead in the third. Norwich’s coach Matt Pontbriant was very happy with the way his team played despite losing.

“We gave 100 percent, we did everything right, even the little things,” Pontbriant said. “It just came down to pitching and we had a couple walks at opportune times.”

Once Pontbriant exited the game due to a pitch limit, a trio of pitchers attempted to close out the last few innings for Norwich. Burt Ogdon, Xavier Epperson and Mister Ballinger finished the game for Norwich.

Willimantic’s offense got hot during that time, plating eight runs in the final two innings.

“I told our guys that these are the same pitchers you saw Monday night,” Lebiszczak said. “I said ‘You’ve seen him, you’ve hit him, just do it again now.’ ”

To start off the fifth inning, Norwich pitchers walked five straight batters, all of whom would eventually score. With one out, Carlos Torres, singled home two runners, and would eventually score himself on a walk to tie the game.

“We hit those pitchers in the same situation Monday in Norwich,” Lebiszczak said. “I think it pumped up our team to score those runs.”

Leading by one, Willimantic allowed one Norwich run to score in the top of the sixth, as first baseman Gus Reynolds walked and came around to score on a passed ball. With the score now tied, Torres buckled down on the mound and proceeded to strike out three-straight Norwich batters to limit the damage.

“I had almost all my pitchers available, and I told them before the game that you’re all going to pitch,” Lebiszczak said. “I would say the pitching from these nine and 10-year-olds was awesome, and this is still a learning level.”

With the table set for a walkoff win, Willimantic leadoff batter Alex Merced started off the sixth with a sharp double to centerfield. Pinch runner Isiah Rivera took over the running duties, which would prove critical in the win.

Isaiah DeJesus, who up to that point had not hit the ball out of the infield, lofted a single to short left field. Rivera briefly stopped at third, but his coach waved him home for the winning run.

“(DeJesus) is clutch, and he’s only a nine-year-old,” Lebiszczak said. “He can see the ball well, he’s got a good swing, and that ball was just perfect.”

DeJesus, who was eating the team’s victory cupcakes following the game, was elated after getting the walkoff hit for his team to win the championship.

“This is my first time winning a championship game,” he said, “and I got the hit.”

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.